Pace Performance’s John O’Donnell recorded his best qualifying performance of the season to line-up inside the top-10 for all three races at Snetterton this weekend.
The South Korean-American set the 10th-fastest time in qualifying but will start both ‘main races’ from ninth due to grid penalties for other drivers carried over from Silverstone.
“It’s a pretty good start to the weekend,” said the 18-year-old, who had taken a best qualifying result of 14th previously. “On the test days before this weekend, we were experimenting and we’ve found some things that work for me and some that don’t. We just need to dial it in closer to where I want it to be for the race.”
O’Donnell closed the gap to his Pace teammates, Torrin Byrne and Josh McLean, and qualified ahead of McLean for the first time this season. His fastest lap was only 0.240s slower than Byrne, who shall start race one from fifth.
“Closing that gap is a little win for me,” said O’Donnell. “I’m taking these little wins as motivation and also pushing the team a little bit more, because we are here now, what can we do to make those few more steps forward?”
O’Donnell was fifth and 14th fastest on the two days of pre-event testing and has carried that form over into the weekend so far. He admits that the circuit is up there amongst his favourites.
“[Snetterton] suits my driving style, the same with Silverstone, because they are high speed tracks,” he said. “It gives me that little edge that I need that can bring out my confidence as a driver and make me improve that bit more.”
Drivers had to deal with temperatures reaching over 33 degrees Celsius during testing, but temperatures dropped significantly for qualifying today (Saturday).
“Heat is a massive thing in these cars,” said O’Donnell. “This cool air definitely makes it easier to drive.”
Starting from ninth in race one, he has set his sights on a personal best finish, which came with eighth place in the reversed-grid race at Silverstone.
“My mindset is to roll with the punches and do the best we can,” said O’Donnell. “The big focus for race one is to get into the top five. That is a solid goal for me and would be a good result.”
Race one is scheduled to start at 14.55 this afternoon (Saturday).
